St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Scores

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For 1,847 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 66% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 32% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.6 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Asteroid City
Lowest review score: 0 The Divergent Series: Insurgent
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,361 out of 1847
  2. Mixed: 317 out of 1847
  3. Negative: 169 out of 1847
1847 movie reviews
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    • 48 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
    The result is more like a long commercial than a cohesive movie, and the omissions are glaring.
  2. Here Comes the Boom
    Loud, incoherent and unfunny, Here Comes the Boom is the sound of American culture imploding.
  3. Red Dawn
    This world is divided between the makers and the takers, and after just a few minutes of Red Dawn, you'll realize there's not much more you can take.
  4. Last Vegas
    In trying to lift this lame schtick, De Niro, Douglas, Freeman and Kline are stand-up guys, but Last Vegas is a case of erectile dysfunction.
  5. The Rookie
    Eastwood also directed, in a plodding, heavy-handed style that leaves little to the imagination and less to the sense of humor. Every scene is as predictable as the chase that precedes or follows it. [07 Dec 1990, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  6. The Nut Job
    This dead-on-arrival ’toon is some of the worst p.r. for rodents since bubonic plague hit medieval Europe.
  7. The Fly II
    There is nothing in Walas' directorial style to raise the movie above the level of a routine gross-out horror movie. Good makeup, though. [19 Feb 1989, p.14H]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    • 50 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
    Painfully dumb. [21 Feb 1989, p.5D]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  9. Gulliver's Travels
    Loosely - very loosely - based on the classic Jonathan Swift story, "Gulliver's Travels" begins promisingly but quickly loses its way.
  10. Ouija
    Directed by Stiles White, whose credits lean more heavily in the special-effect arenas, Ouija is bland, safe horror for those who like their scares nonexistent.
  11. John Wick
    Sorry, Keanu, but you stole my time and you murdered my brain cells. By the sacred oath of WHOA, there will be blood, and this time it’s personal.
  12. Pacific Rim: Uprising
    Tickets to Pacific Rim Uprising should come with a package of aspirin.
  13. Body of Evidence
    There is a lot of sex along the way, but I found very little of it exciting, or even sensual. Madonna never seems to be having any fun, nor do her sexual partners, either in action or when they talk about it later. [15 Jan 1993, p.3E]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  14. Annabelle
    Annabelle is so lazily coat-tailing on Roman Polanski, they should have called it “Rosemary’s Barbie.”
  15. That's My Boy
    In matters of personal taste, there is no right or wrong, so if erasing brain cells is your idea of a good time, That's My Boy could be your cup of turpentine.
  16. Hop
    It's supposed to be sweet, but Hop is a headache waiting to happen.
  17. Before I Go to Sleep
    Despite its intriguing premise, the film amounts to little more than tedious, clichéd melodramatics.
  18. Hall Pass
    Like the middle-aged dads in this flaccid fiasco, Hall Pass is a decade behind the curve of what's happening.
  19. Freelance
    Freelance is this incredibly goofy jumble of tones, a movie that doesn’t know what it is or what it wants to be, flailing about as it far overstays its welcome.
  20. Ninja Assassin
    This amateurish action flick is so lacking in personality or punch, it ought to be titled "V for Video Store Discount Bin."
  21. Son of the Pink Panther
    The Son of the Pink Panther is little more than a mess. Roberto Benigni, a funny-looking Italian actor, has his moments. [31 Aug 1993, p.3D]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  22. The Losers
    Whether you're betting on action or laughs, this is a lose-lose scenario.
  23. Edge of Darkness
    Here most of the punishment is inflicted on the audience, which gets nailed to a cross of boredom.
  24. The Odd Life of Timothy Green
    Kids are too smart to fall for it, and any grown-up who thinks that The Odd Life of Timothy Green is funny or heartwarming has a head made out of cabbage.
  25. Tammy
    McCarthy and first-time director Falcone must have assumed that tossing a drunk and a dunce into a Cadillac would negate the need for a motive or even a script.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Smurfs: The Lost Village
    Young children will be entertained, but for the rest of the audience, pretty colors just aren’t enough.
  27. Peeples
    Comedies about privileged princesses and unsuitable suitors come in all colors, but Peeples is only palatable on a double bill with pink antacid.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
    The baby sitter isn't the only thing dead in this movie - the plot also suffered a massive coronary while being scripted. In fact, the only life breathed into Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is the light comedic performance of Christina Applegate (Married . . . With Children), with an assist from Keith Coogan. [13 June 1991, p.6E]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  29. The Virginity Hit
    If The Virginity Hit had been filmed as a straightforward sex comedy, it could've been a riot.
  30. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
    An utter shipwreck, a would-be adventure with meager rations of magic and a listless crew.
  31. Happy Feet Two
    The best thing you could say about Happy Feet Two is that it doesn't have any product placements or potty jokes. Other than that, this charmless Antarctic cartoon is what it looks like when hell freezes over.
  32. Guncrazy
    Tamra Davis, directing her first feature, is so caught up in the sex-and-violence aspects, and bolstering the body count, that she forgets to keep her story at all credible, and lets gunshots take the place of conversation. [19 Feb 1993, p.3G]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  33. The Hangover Part III
    The good news is that Ed Helms doesn’t wake up in a Tijuana brothel with an amputated leg and a donkey in the room. The bad news is that you’ll wish he had.
  34. HouseSitter
    The romantic relationship between the two stars is mishandled, and neither is given sufficient funny material. [16 June 1992, p.4D]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  35. Fallen
    In short, "Fallen" hits the halfway point, it goes down and can't get up. [16 Jan 1993, p.E3]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    • 28 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Steel
    SHAQUILLE O'NEAL: Don't give up your day job. After a lackluster outing as a genie in "Shazam," the LA Lakers star does little to put any shine on "Steel," a movie that draws its laughs from lots of rock-em-sock-em pyrotechnics and comic book visuals.[15 Aug 1997, p.3E]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  37. Cinderella
    Cinderella is so scrubbed of personality, it’s not even worth calling a mess.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    The Little Rascals
    Kids between the ages of 5 and 10 probably will enjoy this one, and there isn't much (some mild bathroom humor) that parents will find terribly objectionable, except its stupidity. [12 Aug 1994, p.3H]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  39. House Party
    The comedy waffles between nonsensically heightened and realistically grounded, often alternating between the two modes at random, never landing on a tone.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Men at Work
    Estevez couldn't decide what he wanted: a doofus comedy, a serious political statement, a mystery, a Bowery Boys' knock-off. The result is sophomoric. [27 Aug 1990, p.5D]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  41. Joyful Noise
    Nothing more than uninspired mushiness.
  42. Tomorrowland
    Disney’s gimmick of naming movies for its theme-park attractions crashes and burns in Tomorrowland, a here-and-now caper that will confuse children, bore adults and offend anyone who’s ever taken a science class.
  43. Sliver
    In this year's stupid sexy screamer, Sliver, [Stone] tries to reveal some of her character's mind. But there's nothing in there but cotton candy and foggy images from old soap operas. [23 May 1993, p.12C]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  44. Hot Pursuit
    The trailers for the Reese Witherspoon-Sofia Vergara comedy Hot Pursuit hint at a movie that’s unfunny, insufferable and obvious. You can’t say you weren’t warned.
  45. The Nightmare Before Christmas
    In the hands of some Eastern European masters, stop-motion animation has created some fine adult animated films, like Jan Svankmajer's spooky version of "Alice in Wonderland." But The Nightmare Before Christmas is basically a charmless and muddled tale that aims at a target somewhere in the vast gulf between Franz Kafka and Walt Disney and hits nothing. [22 Oct 1993, p.3E]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  46. Survival of the Dead
    A bland family-feud potboiler with no sign of the cook.
  47. Man of Steel
    A soulless, overblown bore.
  48. Office Christmas Party
    This party is a dud.
  49. Identity Thief
    Suffering through this felonious farce could only inspire a prison riot.
  50. 30 Beats
    Where the original play "La Ronde" was a social satire about the transmission of venereal disease, 30 Beats is a sickly stepchild.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
    That can’t disguise the script’s complete lack of wit or originality, though, or the generally wooden acting.
  52. A Good Man in Africa
    This droll, leisurely paced movie might alternately be titled "The Only Good Man in Africa." [09 Sep 1994, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  53. Book Club
    A disgrace and a waste of the talents of Oscar winners Keaton, Fonda and Steenburgen and Emmy recipient Bergen. Obviously, the film is intended for an older audience. But is this anemic, feature-length sitcom really the best that Hollywood can do?
  54. Johnny English Reborn
    For anyone expecting the second coming of Clouseau, Johnny English Reborn is a karmic catastrophe.
  55. The Back-up Plan
    With movies like this, Lopez might want to start leaving low-end romantic comedies alone and look at her movie career's backup plan.
  56. Kafka
    The film makes a few starts in many directions but doesn't go very far in any, and that's disappointing to those of us who thought so much of Soderbergh's previous effort. Oh, well, everyone's entitled to a clunker now and then. [7 Feb. 1992, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  57. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
    On Stranger Tides has the fishy smell of something washed ashore and sold as new. But this shipwreck isn't worth a wooden doubloon.
  58. A Walk Among the Tombstones
    So stupid and hateful, it needs to have a stake driven through its heart before it can spawn a franchise.
  59. Transformers: The Last Knight
    This is Bay’s world, and when faced with the end of the world, there’s only one message to be gleaned from this supposed finale of the “Transformers” franchise: The Mack trucks and the muscle cars will outlive us all.
  60. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
    As in the first "Sherlock Holmes" movie, there are plenty of pratfalls and bare-knuckle brawls but no sleuthing for us to share.
  61. Green Lantern
    The spectacular collapse of Green Lantern is bound to be blamed on Reynolds, but the villainy has its origins in an injustice league of TV-trained screenwriters and tin-hearted studio suits.
  62. Pixels
    Long before you’ve gotten a nickel’s worth of entertainment out of this dumb, unfunny flick, you’ll be wishing for the flashing sign that says “Game over.”
  63. Madonna: Truth or Dare
    The overt sexuality of Madonna's stage show, particularly the lengthy exercise in self-stimulation called Like a Virgin, as well as the sometimes startling bluntness of her talk, keeps the movie from being totally boring. But this kind of trash can only sustain itself for so long - for most of us, about as long as it takes to get through the line at a supermarket. [17 May 1991, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    • 55 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's
    The overall feel is less of a cohesive documentary and more of a slapdash scrapbook of facts, historical information and name-dropping.
  65. Ted
    Ted does not only break before it ends. It snaps back so violently that it very well may knock out of your mind any recollection that the movie is fairly entertaining for about 30 minutes.
  66. Captive
    Oyelowo and Mara achieve terrific chemistry. Perhaps they’ll work together again — in a better film.
  67. In Secret
    In Secret is so stifled, it makes “Les Misérables” look like “Amélie.”
  68. The Seagull
    One has to wonder why the film was even made if it had to be so disastrously compromised. Chekhov would be appalled.
  69. The Big Wedding
    It’s nearly tragic to see America’s Greatest Living Actor on the guest list for The Big Wedding, the latest limp comedy about seniors behaving badly.
  70. Old Dogs
    Old Dogs is so oafish, when it tosses us a biscuit, it feels like we've been smacked with a newspaper.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Robin Hood: Men in Tights
    The problem with Mel Brooks these days is the same one Woody Allen would have if he kept making Bananas over and over. [30 July 1993, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  72. The Comedian
    Working from a lackluster screenplay by a squad of writers, director Taylor Hackford (“Ray”) delivers a film so low in energy that it’s almost as if it was made to assist airline passengers in falling asleep.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Species
    Superb actors and the best special effects money can buy can only go so far when you have a second-rate script sprinkled with unintentional laugh lines. [07 July 1995, p.3E]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  74. Stand Up Guys
    Dare we say it? Even the acting is atrocious, with pop-eyed Pacino chewing the scenery like a geezer gumming his oatmeal.
  75. Spy
    With the overlong, limp and lazy Spy, Feig has lost his mojo.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Wayne's World 2
    The things that made "Wayne's World" work at all - freshness, spontaneity - are missing from this losing sequel. [10 Dec 1993, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  77. Jupiter Ascending
    Channing Tatum is a lot of things, but he’s not a stoic Superman like the role he plays here, which is made more laughable by prosthetic pointy ears.
  78. Our Family Wedding
    Director Rick Famuyiwa did much better when focusing just on African-American culture in films such as "Brown Sugar" and "The Wood." Here, in bringing together two cultures, he does neither any favors.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    The Killer
    Ordinarily, one decries the violence in the streets, in life or art - or rationalizes that violence on the screen is a healthy outlet for man's inhumanity to man. But there's no such highfalutin psychology in The Killer. The film is just plain outlandish - and anyone who doesn't get the hyberbole should have a 99-year lease on The Farm for the Bewildered. [16 Aug 1991, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  80. Leviathan
    For a while in the middle, as tentacles began snaking through the ship, the shock value is considerable. But director George P. Cosmatos lets the suspense slide away in ridiculous dialogue and confusing action. By the end, the movie is terrible rather than terrifying. [17 Mar 1989, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  81. Fame
    Offers about as much flava as a Dr. Pepper commercial and about as much drama as a “Sesame Street” rerun.
  82. The Bonfire of the Vanities
    The movie is going to make a lot of people mad, too - the ones who liked the book. If you missed Tom Wolfe's scathingly satirical best seller about the greedy society of the 1980s, you will probably find yourself bored by the tepid, badly miscast screen version. You may leave the theater a little confused as to why there was so much controversy during the filming of what turns out to be a silly, almost innocuous Hollywood farce. [21 Dec 1990, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    • 46 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Jetsons: The Movie
    Unfortunately, not only was I disappointed with the lackluster animation, but I was also bored with the flatness of the characters and story. And if that wasn't enough to throw cold water on warm cartoon memories, screenwriter Dennis Marks forces the audience to listen to a bunch of forgettable, bubble gum tunes by Tiffany, who plays the voice of the Jetsons' daughter, Judy. [12 July 1990, p.6E]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  84. Wild Orchid
    A FEW mildly erotic soft-core sex scenes separated by long stretches of very pretentious, bad dialogue and some travelogue shots of Carnival in Rio: That's about it for Wild Orchid. [25 May 1990, p.6F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  85. The Last Stand
    While the cast includes Luis Guzman (as a buffoonish deputy) and Johnny Knoxville (as a local gun nut), there's no sense that these are real people in a real town, and Schwarzenegger's Sheriff Owens has the weakest backstory of all.
  86. The Fault in Our Stars
    This movie is so tone-deaf it would only make sense in Vincent van Gogh’s missing ear.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    If Lucy Fell
    'IF Lucy Fell" off the Brooklyn Bridge, as she threatens to do early in this movie, the rest of us would be spared 93 minutes of annoying drivel, save a few - very few - funny moments. [8 March 1996, p.3E]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  88. The Thing Called Love
    The Thing Called Love, Phoenix' final movie, should not be used as a memorial to his career; "Stand By Me," "Running on Empty" and "My Own Private Idaho" are much better examples of his talent, which was considerable. [12 Nov 1993, p.3G]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  89. 1992
    The geography and some of the coincidences are as baffling as the messaging. The 96-minute runtime feels cyclical and endless.
  90. Grown Ups
    Nobody escapes unscathed, except, of course, for Sandler, who co-wrote the infantile screenplay.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Lord of the Flies
    A remarkably cold re-telling of a tale that, when we encountered it before, was shattering in its emotional impact. [16 Mar 1990, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  92. The Last Airbender
    A toxic potion that will put children to sleep and kill his (M. Night Shyamalan) career.
  93. Free Fire
    The film is a criminal waste of an ensemble cast that should have found something better to do than lend their names to such a pointless exercise. Free Fire is a misfire.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Trespass
    If the story were only a little better, the characters and situations a little more believable, the very talented Hill could have turned this into a winner. As it is, the direction keeps things taut and rather tense, even as the dialogue sags into nonsense. [25 Dec 1992, p.3H]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    • 28 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Return to the Blue Lagoon
    Return to the Blue Lagoon is just a lamer rehash of the 1980 movie, which starred Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. And that ''classic'' actually was just a remake of the 1949 Jean Simmons version. Except that in the latest sequel, there isn't even the dopey innocence that was present in the Shields-Atkins saga. It's just dopey. [06 Aug 1991, p.4D]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    • 49 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    DragonHeart
    The dragon is a wimp. The knight is a geek. The king is a jerk. And, unless you're 12 or younger, the story is a bore. [31 May 1996, p.3E]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  97. Split Second
    LARGE GROUPS of highly paid Hollywood people spend a great deal of time deciding on titles for new movies. Rarely do they succeed as well as with ''Split Second,'' whose title perfectly describes the length of entertainment in store for the moviegoer. [1 May 1992, p.3G]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  98. Run All Night
    If you’re a fan of the “Taken” movies and tend to give action-hero Neeson the benefit of the doubt, our advice here is simple: Run away!
  99. The Mechanic
    Even by the sloppy, soulless standards of hit man movies, The Mechanic is a mess.
  100. Honeymoon in Vegas
    THE MAN who would trade his fiancee - but just for the weekend! - for a $65,000 gambling debt may be rather sleazy, but it probably wouldn't raise many eyebrows in Las Vegas, where sleaze and the concept of woman-as-object have marched hand-in-hand for many years. ''Honeymoon in Vegas'' continues those precepts, and does so woefully, with dumb writing, ordinary direction and performances by Nicolas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker and James Caan that are so awful as to be mind-boggling. [28 Aug 1992, p.3F]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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